PREP CROSS COUNTRY: Meade County boys finish second in 3-A region meet in Louisville (11/04)

Longtime Meade County coach Larry Garner has long believed freshman Jacob Robertson could develop into one of the best runners he’s ever coached.

On Saturday at Champions Park in Louisville, Robertson began to tap into that potential.

Robertson placed ninth in 16 minutes, 34.40 seconds to lead the Green Wave to a runner-up finish behind Louisville St. Xavier in the Class 3-A, Region 3 meet.

“He was with the St. X pack for the first 2 miles, but couldn’t hang on,” Garner said of Robertson. “As a freshman, he had the potential to be the most talented runner we’ve had. He still has all that potential.”

Senior Noah Buchman, sophomore Jonathan Howard and senior Will Strickland finished 10th-12th for Meade County, which scored 62 points. St. Xavier had 17 points, while Louisville squads Butler (94) and DuPont Manual (96) were third and fourth. The top four teams qualify for the State meet later this week in Lexington.

While he wasn’t surprised by Robertson’s performance, Garner said it was a bit odd to see Strickland slip to Meade County’s fourth-best runner Saturday.

“He’s not happy, that’s for sure,” Garner said. “I don’t know what happened. Will just never hit that next level. He never hit that surge, and he just looked like he was struggling the whole race.”

The Lady Waves, meanwhile, just missed qualifying for State. They finished fifth, 25 points back of fourth-place Nelson County and 33 points behind Louisville Male. Manual won the title with 25 points and Butler was second with 37.

But Meade County will still be represented at State. Sophomore Mary Kate Powers (18th), freshman Hailey Blevins (22nd) and junior Kaylea Neal (29th) locked up three of the region’s individual qualifying spots.

“We knew that even if we ran great, someone else would have to run poorly for us to get in,” Garner said. “But they went out and ran an amazing race. It just happens that Nelson County and (Louisville) Male were better than us. But I’m still proud of them.”

CLASS 1-A, REGION 3. Two Fort Knox runners will be going to State.

Sophomore Taeisha Wynder finished 12th in the girls’ race, while junior Richard Thackrey was 15th in the boys’ event at Bardstown’s Wickland Park.

Eighth-grader Taylor Stephenson was 26th for the Lady Eagles, who only had four runners and didn’t receive a team score.

Junior Redmond Johnson placed 21st for the Eagles, who finished seventh with 177 points.

CLASS 3-A, REGION 3 MEET

LOUISVILLE— Results from Saturday’s region meet at Champions Park:

BOYS’ RESULTS

(55 RUNNERS, 8 TEAMS)

2. Meade County (62)

  9. Jacob Robertson                              16:34.40

10. Noah Buchman                                16:55.80

11. Jonathan Howard                             17:00.20

12. Will Strickland                                  17:03.80

20. Jacob Waldecker                              17:28.90

22. Geo Kapalungan                              17:32.80

23. Nick Kapalungan                              17:34.60

GIRLS’ RESULTS

6. Meade County (121)

18. Mary Kate Powers                            21:17.90

22. Hailey Blevins                                  21:30.40

26. Kaylea Neal                                     21:37.30

27. Olivia Honaker                                 21:51.20

28. Alexis Greco                                    21:56.00

36. Ellie DeVries                                    22:17.10

39. Hannah King                                   22:40.60

CLASS 1-A, REGION 3 MEET

BARDSTOWN — Results from Saturday’s region meet at Wickland Park:

BOYS’ RESULTS

(63 RUNNERS, 9 TEAMS)

7. Fort Knox (177)

15. Richard Thackrey                              18:04.84

21. Redmond Johnson                            18:23.43

43. Darren Starbuck                               20:24.40

52. Jalen McKee                                    21:06.27

59. Alex Howell                                      23:03.49

GIRLS’ RESULTS

(42 RUNNERS, 5 TEAMS)

X. Fort Knox (NTS)

12. Taeisha Wynder                               21:40.71

26. Taylor Stephenson                           24:33.08

30. Brenna Stephenson                          25:11.62

32. Shannon Brown                               26:03.65